How to get a great laptop for less than £500

Sarah’s been saving up for a laptop to take to university in September, and now has around £500 to play with. She’s done her research and narrowed down a long list of possible choices to just three laptops, basing her criteria on their technical specifications, size and design.

Now, she’s just stuck on picking the best out of the three. All her homework (in terms of this computer purchase, that is) has been done online; it means she’s relatively informed but she’s keen to get past the manufacturing jargon and flashy photographs and see how the laptops fare in the real world. As a student, Sarah’s understandably reluctant to waste her cash. We gave Sarah a day with her top three in order to settle the dilemma once and for all.

Gateway ML6227B

“My first impression is that it’s boring to look at – a bit plain,” Sarah said. On opening it up Sarah was also unimpressed with the clunky trackpad buttons. “These feel a bit loose and cheap,” she said. “I’m not sure they’d last very long.”

Sarah was relieved to see that McAfee Antivirus was installed. “Our home PC wasn’t protected and we got a virus almost as soon as we got online.”

Sarah was surprised at the number of icons in the system tray in the corner of the screen. Google Desktop was running, despite its redundancy in light of the search features in Windows Vista, and a ‘Blocked Startup Programs’ icon took Sarah to a long list of disabled programs. “Why are these disabled? Surely they’re there for a reason…”

A window flashed up, informing Sarah she wasn’t protected. “I thought that was McAfee’s job!” she exclaimed, clicking on the message. It brought up Windows Security Center, which informed her that her McAfee subscription was out of date and she’d need to renew it. “I thought I was safe – apparently not!”

“This screen doesn’t seem very bright or colourful,” said Sarah, struggling with the brightness and contrast controls. Sarah then took a look at the software that came with the package. “It’s got something called CyberLink Power2Go.” This turned out to be a CD burning utility with various features. “Good if I have to hand in essays on disc,” Sarah grinned. 2007 Microsoft Office system was also installed, but asked for a key when she opened Office Word 2007. Digging in the box, Sarah found a limited trial key, though this neglected to tell her when it would expire. “What if I was finishing an assignment and it stopped working?” Valid question, Sarah…

Mesh M670-S2

“This is a lot lighter than the Gateway,” Sarah enthused, removing the laptop from its box. She appreciated the packaging; the screen was taped up and there was a keyboard mat between the keyboard and screen. “The keyboard is great, but the touch-pad isn’t; it has a textured feel which is a bit rough.” Switching the laptop on for the first time, Sarah was pleased it asked her to set things up how she liked and guided her through the whole set-up process.

When the Windows Vista desktop finally appeared, Sarah was surprised to see the Windows Sidebar, as it had been disabled on the Gateway. “Is that a new feature in Windows Vista? I like it, it’s cute!” she said. “I thought one of the big things about Windows Vista was for everything to be transparent, though?”

We explained that this laptop came with Windows Vista Home Basic, and that this lacked the highend graphical appearance of the more expensive editions, as well as Windows Media Center and various other features. “I don’t really mind not having the glass effect, but Media Center is something I was planning to use to watch films on in my room,” she said with obvious disappointment.

The package included Norton’s Internet Security software: “I’d be much happier connecting this laptop to a campus network with software like this protecting me.” A shortcut offered to install Magix Goya Base, the purpose of which neither Sarah nor we could initially work out.

Sarah installed it, and it wasn’t until she’d reached the fourth or fifth slide of tick boxes that it revealed itself as a CD burning, photo editing and music suite, much the same as the Power2Go software that came with the Gateway. “It seems to be lots of programs in one – which means a complicated install process. Can’t this stuff all be done in Windows Vista anyway? I’d have preferred an office suite of some kind to another media player.”

Acer Aspire 5103WLMI

“It’s pretty average looking – definitely not as pretty as the Mesh,” remarked Sarah. “It’s just as light, though, which will make it easy to lug around between lectures.” Despite the light weight, she felt assured of the Acer’s longevity: “It’s a simple design and it feels durable, like it would last me my three years at uni.”

Sarah also liked the feel of the trackpad. “It’s smooth and sensitive,” she said. “So is the keyboard, actually – it feels great to type on. The screen looks great, too – bright and sharp.”

The software package included Norton AntiVirus, which was updated and ready out of the box. “Finally, a hassle-free virus killer!” said Sarah with some relief.

On paper, the Acer laptop was the fastest of those tested, and Sarah noticed it felt a lot more responsive. As the Acer also came preinstalled with Windows Vista Home Premium, it provided Sarah with more wallpaper choices, and the presence of the Windows Sidebar. “I know I said I didn’t really mind about the lack of the glass effect on the Mesh, but now I’ve seen it again I really like it! It feels a lot cleaner.”

Sarah did notice that the laptop’s battery meter seemed to fluctuate, giving a different reading whenever she hovered her cursor over the battery icon in the taskbar. But she soon forgot about that when she recognised the Bluetooth logo in the control panel from seeing it on her phone. “So I can Bluetooth pictures from my phone and email them – awesome!” she said excitedly.

Sarah then noticed the integrated Orbit Cam webcam above the screen. “I hadn’t thought about it before, but I could use this – combined with Windows Live Messenger – as a way to keep in touch with all my friends and family back home! ”